CARVER – It’s as if they have known each other forever, that’s how much they have in common. Unfortunately, they also have sarcoma in common.

Sarcoma is a cancer of the connective tissues, such as nerves, muscles and bones.

The friends who met by chance and have known each other for less than a year are teaming up to host a fundraiser for sarcoma research. Their Family Fun Day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 21, is intended to raise awareness of this kind of cancer.

Lisa Thibodeau’s 32-year-old daughter, Terri, lost her battle with sarcoma last year. Her sarcoma affected all the nerves in her body.

Thibodeau, who previously lived in Carver with her family for 20 years, and Van Sluytman, the reigning Ms. Massachusetts North America 2014 whose platform was cancer awareness, have both been touched by sarcoma and other cancers in their lives with multiple family members experiencing some form of cancer. They are serious about spreading awareness because of the pain they have felt.

“This is extremely important to me,” Thibodeau said, “because I do not want to see any other family go through what we did – to sit there and be completely helpless and not be able to help and watch your baby die, it’s horrifying.”

When Terri was 20, doctors determined that she had a tumor that was non-cancerous but inoperable and would need to be watched. When the tumor started to grow, doctors determined that it was cancerous and she was referred to a tumor specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and underwent extensive surgery to get the tumor, her ureter and all her female organs out in October 2012. Her prognosis seemed good, but then a checkup right before Christmas revealed that the cancer had returned with a vengeance.

She went into the hospital for chemotherapy Jan. 29, 2013, and died less than eight weeks later on March 20.

“Sarcoma is one of the rarer cancers,” she said. “I had never heard of sarcoma until I heard that’s what Terri had.”

The proceeds from Family Fun Day will go to the Liddy Driver Sarcoma Initiative, an organization that supports research that is targeted at finding cures for sarcomas, as well as research that attempts to develop more effective treatment regimens than those currently available.

According to the Initiative’s website, sarcomas can arise anywhere in the body and are frequently hidden deep in the limbs. They are often misdiagnosed and assumed to be sports injuries or benign bumps.

Sarcomas are rare tumors, comprising less than 1 percent of adults’ cancers and nearly 21 percent of children’s cancers, according to the website, citing research by Burningham, Hashibe, Spector and Schiffman on “The epidemiology of sarcoma” from Clinical Sarcoma Research in October 2012.